Self-propelled appliances, such as lawn mowers, upright vacuum floor cleaners, and the like, have been heretofore provided including a drive engine or motor for operating the appliance mounted on a wheeled chassis having a handle extending generally upwardly thereof. Such drive engine or motor is used to power the working components of the appliance such as the cutting blade or blades of a lawn mower, or the like, or the suction fan and/or brush roll of a vacuum cleaner. It has also been suggested to use the same engine or motor to propel such appliance with transmission means being also mounted on the chassis for utilizing the drive engine or motor to propel the appliance in a forward and/or reverse direction under the control of the operator. It has also been heretofore suggested to provide such appliances with a control or hand grip slidable on the handle and connected with such transmission means so that when the control or hand grip is pushed forwardly, the transmission is engaged automatically to propel the appliance forwardly and when the control or hand grip is pulled rearwardly the transmission is similarly automatically engaged in a reverse drive configuration to propel the appliance rearwardly. A suitable transmission is shown, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 228,021 filed Jan. 23, 1981 by Scott Bair, assigned to the assignee of the instant application, and incorporated by reference herein.